Abstract: The Minimal Residual (MR) is modified for adaptive
filtering application. Three forms of MR based algorithm are
presented: i) the low complexity SPCG, ii) MREDSI, and iii)
MREDSII. The low complexity is a reduced complexity version of a
previously proposed SPCG algorithm. Approximations introduced
reduce the algorithm to an LMS type algorithm, but, maintain the
superior convergence of the SPCG algorithm. Both MREDSI and
MREDSII are MR based methods with Euclidean direction of search.
The choice of Euclidean directions is shown via simulation to give
better misadjustment compared to their gradient search counterparts.
Abstract: Many agricultural and especially greenhouse
applications like plant inspection, data gathering, spraying and
selective harvesting could be performed by robots. In this paper
multiple nonholonomic robots are used in order to create a desired
formation scheme for screening solar energy in a greenhouse through
data gathering. The formation consists from a leader and a team
member equipped with appropriate sensors. Each robot is dedicated
to its mission in the greenhouse that is predefined by the
requirements of the application. The feasibility of the proposed
application includes experimental results with three unmanned
ground vehicles (UGV).
Abstract: Software reliability, defined as the probability of a
software system or application functioning without failure or errors
over a defined period of time, has been an important area of research
for over three decades. Several research efforts aimed at developing
models to improve reliability are currently underway. One of the
most popular approaches to software reliability adopted by some of
these research efforts involves the use of operational profiles to
predict how software applications will be used. Operational profiles
are a quantification of usage patterns for a software application. The
research presented in this paper investigates an innovative multiagent
framework for automatic creation and management of
operational profiles for generic distributed systems after their release
into the market. The architecture of the proposed Operational Profile
MAS (Multi-Agent System) is presented along with detailed
descriptions of the various models arrived at following the analysis
and design phases of the proposed system. The operational profile in
this paper is extended to comprise seven different profiles. Further,
the criticality of operations is defined using a new composed metrics
in order to organize the testing process as well as to decrease the time
and cost involved in this process. A prototype implementation of the
proposed MAS is included as proof-of-concept and the framework is
considered as a step towards making distributed systems intelligent
and self-managing.
Abstract: Real-time object tracking is a problem which involves extraction of critical information from complex and uncertain imagedata. In this paper, we present a comprehensive methodology to design an artificial neural network (ANN) for a real-time object tracking application. The object, which is tracked for the purpose of demonstration, is a specific airplane. However, the proposed ANN can be trained to track any other object of interest. The ANN has been simulated and tested on the training and testing datasets, as well as on a real-time streaming video. The tracking error is analyzed with post-regression analysis tool, which finds the correlation among the calculated coordinates and the correct coordinates of the object in the image. The encouraging results from the computer simulation and analysis show that the proposed ANN architecture is a good candidate solution to a real-time object tracking problem.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose the pre-processor based on
the Evidence Supporting Measure of Similarity (ESMS) filter and also
propose the unified fusion approach (UFA) based on the general
fusion machine coupled with ESMS filter, which improve the
correctness and precision of information fusion in any fields of
application. Here we mainly apply the new approach to Simultaneous
Localization And Mapping (SLAM) of Pioneer II mobile robots. A
simulation experiment was performed, where an autonomous virtual
mobile robot with sonar sensors evolves in a virtual world map with
obstacles. By comparing the result of building map according to the
general fusion machine (here DSmT-based fusing machine and
PCR5-based conflict redistributor considereded) coupling with ESMS
filter and without ESMS filter, it shows the benefit of the selection of
the sources as a prerequisite for improvement of the information
fusion, and also testifies the superiority of the UFA in dealing with
SLAM.
Abstract: The Chiu-s method which generates a Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) is a method of fuzzy rules extraction. The rules output is a linear function of inputs. In addition, these rules are not explicit for the expert. In this paper, we develop a method which generates Mamdani FIS, where the rules output is fuzzy. The method proceeds in two steps: first, it uses the subtractive clustering principle to estimate both the number of clusters and the initial locations of a cluster centers. Each obtained cluster corresponds to a Mamdani fuzzy rule. Then, it optimizes the fuzzy model parameters by applying a genetic algorithm. This method is illustrated on a traffic network management application. We suggest also a Mamdani fuzzy rules generation method, where the expert wants to classify the output variables in some fuzzy predefined classes.
Abstract: Nowadays, people are going more and more mobile, both in terms of devices and associated applications. Moreover, services that these devices are offering are getting wider and much more complex. Even though actual handheld devices have considerable computing power, their contexts of utilization are different. These contexts are affected by the availability of connection, high latency of wireless networks, battery life, size of the screen, on-screen or hard keyboard, etc. Consequently, development of mobile applications and their associated mobile Web services, if any, should follow a concise methodology so they will provide a high Quality of Service. The aim of this paper is to highlight and discuss main issues to consider when developing mobile applications and mobile Web services and then propose a framework that leads developers through different steps and modules toward development of efficient and secure mobile applications. First, different challenges in developing such applications are elicited and deeply discussed. Second, a development framework is presented with different modules addressing each of these challenges. Third, the paper presents an example of a mobile application, Eivom Cinema Guide, which benefits from following our development framework.
Abstract: Mobile agent has motivated the creation of a new
methodology for parallel computing. We introduce a methodology
for the creation of parallel applications on the network. The proposed
Mobile-Agent parallel processing framework uses multiple Javamobile
Agents. Each mobile agent can travel to the specified
machine in the network to perform its tasks. We also introduce the
concept of master agent, which is Java object capable of
implementing a particular task of the target application. Master agent
is dynamically assigns the task to mobile agents. We have developed
and tested a prototype application: Mobile Agent Based Parallel
Computing. Boosted by the inherited benefits of using Java and
Mobile Agents, our proposed methodology breaks the barriers
between the environments, and could potentially exploit in a parallel
manner all the available computational resources on the network.
This paper elaborates performance issues of a mobile agent for
parallel computing.
Abstract: Arms detection is one of the fundamental problems in
human motion analysis application. The arms are considered as the
most challenging body part to be detected since its pose and speed
varies in image sequences. Moreover, the arms are usually occluded
with other body parts such as the head and torso. In this paper,
histogram-based skin colour segmentation is proposed to detect the
arms in image sequences. Six different colour spaces namely RGB,
rgb, HSI, TSL, SCT and CIELAB are evaluated to determine the best
colour space for this segmentation procedure. The evaluation is
divided into three categories, which are single colour component,
colour without luminance and colour with luminance. The
performance is measured using True Positive (TP) and True Negative
(TN) on 250 images with manual ground truth. The best colour is
selected based on the highest TN value followed by the highest TP
value.
Abstract: The necessity of accurate and timely field data is
shared among organizations engaged in fundamentally different
activities, public services or commercial operations. Basically, there
are three major components in the process of the qualitative research:
data collection, interpretation and organization of data, and analytic
process. Representative technological advancements in terms of
innovation have been made in mobile devices (mobile phone, PDA-s,
tablets, laptops, etc). Resources that can be potentially applied on the
data collection activity for field researches in order to improve this
process.
This paper presents and discuss the main features of a mobile
phone based solution for field data collection, composed of basically
three modules: a survey editor, a server web application and a client
mobile application. The data gathering process begins with the
survey creation module, which enables the production of tailored
questionnaires. The field workforce receives the questionnaire(s) on
their mobile phones to collect the interviews responses and sending
them back to a server for immediate analysis.
Abstract: Internet computer games turn to be more and more
attractive within the context of technology enhanced learning.
Educational games as quizzes and quests have gained significant
success in appealing and motivating learners to study in a different
way and provoke steadily increasing interest in new methods of
application. Board games are specific group of games where figures
are manipulated in competitive play mode with race conditions on a
surface according predefined rules. The article represents a new,
formalized model of traditional quizzes, puzzles and quests shown as
multimedia board games which facilitates the construction process of
such games. Authors provide different examples of quizzes and their
models in order to demonstrate the model is quite general and does
support not only quizzes, mazes and quests but also any set of
teaching activities. The execution process of such models is
explained and, as well, how they can be useful for creation and
delivery of adaptive e-learning courseware.
Abstract: Science and technology of ultrasonic is widely used in
recent years for industrial and medicinal application. The acoustical
properties of 2-mercapto substituted pyrimidines viz.,2- Mercapto-4-
(2’,4’ –dichloro phenyl) – 6-(2’ – hydroxyl -4’ –methyl-5’ –
chlorophenyl) pyrimidine and 2 –Mercapto – 4-(4’ –chloro phenyl) –
6-(2’ – hydroxyl -4’ –methyl-5’ –chlorophenyl) pyrimidine have been
investigated from the ultrasonic velocity and density measurements at
different concentration and different % in dioxane-water mixture at
305K. The adiabatic compressibility (βs), acoustic impedance (Z),
intermolecular free length (Lf), apparent molar volume(ϕv) and
relative association (RA) values have been calculated from the
experimental data of velocity and density measurement at
concentration range of 0.01- 0.000625 mol/lit and 70%,75% and 80%
dioxane water mixture. These above parameters are used to discuss
the structural and molecular interactions.
Abstract: The study and development of an innovative material
for building insulation is really important for a sustainable society in order to improve comfort and reducing energy consumption. The aim of this work is the development of insulating panels for
sustainable buildings based on an innovative material made by
cardboard and Phase Change Materials (PCMs).
The research has consisted in laboratory tests whose purpose has been the obtaining of the required properties for insulation panels: lightweight, porous structures and mechanical resistance. PCMs have been used for many years in the building industry as
smart insulation technology because of their properties of storage and release high quantity of latent heat at useful specific temperatures [1]- [2].
The integration of PCMs into cellulose matrix during the waste paper recycling process has been developed in order to obtain a
composite material.
Experiments on the productive process for the realization of insulating panels were done in order to make the new material
suitable for building application. The addition of rising agents
demonstrated the possibility to obtain a lighter structure with better
insulation properties.
Several tests were conducted to verify the new panel properties. The results obtained have shown the possibility to realize an
innovative and sustainable material suitable to replace insulating panels currently used.
Abstract: Business rules and data warehouse are concepts and
technologies that impact a wide variety of organizational tasks. In
general, each area has evolved independently, impacting application
development and decision-making. Generating knowledge from data
warehouse is a complex process. This paper outlines an approach to
ease import of information and knowledge from a data warehouse
star schema through an inference class of business rules. The paper
utilizes the Oracle database for illustrating the working of the
concepts. The star schema structure and the business rules are stored
within a relational database. The approach is explained through a
prototype in Oracle-s PL/SQL Server Pages.
Abstract: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are attractive because of
their excellent chemical durability mechanical strength and electrical
properties. Therefore there is interest in CNTs for not only electrical
and mechanical application, but also biological and medical
application.
In this study, the dispersion power of surfactant-treated multiwalled
carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and their effect on the antibacterial
activity were examined. Surfactant was used sodium
dodecyl-benzenesulfonate (SDBS). UV-vis absorbance and
transmission electron microscopy(TEM) were used to characterize the
dispersion of MWCNTs in the aqueous phase, showing that the
surfactant molecules had been adsorbed onto the MWCNTs surface.
The surfactant-treated MWCNTs exhibited antimicrobial activities
to streptococcus mutans. The optical density growth curves and viable
cell number determined by the plating method suggested that the
antimicrobial activity of surfactant-treated MWCNTs was both
concentration and treatment time-dependent.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation of a fully integrated transimpedance amplifier (TIA) as the analog frontend receiver for Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers (CMUTs) for ultrasound biomicroscope imaging application. The amplifier is designed to amplify the received signals from 17.5MHz to 52.5MHz with a center frequency of 35MHz. The TIA was fabricated in GF 0.18μm 1P6M 30V high voltage process. The measurement results show that the designed amplifier can reach a transimpedance gain of 61.08dBΩ and operating frequency from 17.5MHz to 100MHz with 1VP-P output voltage under 6V power supply.
Abstract: Location-based services (LBS) exploit the known
location of a user to provide services dependent on their geographic
context and personalized needs [1].
The development and arrival of broadband mobile data networks
supported with mobile terminals equipped with new location
technologies like GPS have finally created opportunities for
implementation of LBS applications. But, from the other side,
collecting location information data in general raises privacy
concerns.
This paper presents results from two surveys of LBS acceptance in
Croatia. The first survey was administered on 181 students, and the
second extended survey involved pattern of 180 Croatian citizens.
We developed questionnaire which consists of descriptions of 15
different applications with scale which measures perceptions and
attitudes of users towards these applications.
We report the results to identify potential commercial applications
for LBS in B2C segment. Our findings suggest that some types of
applications like emergency&safety services and navigation have
significantly higher rate of acceptance than other types.
Abstract: Salinity is a measure of the amount of salts in the
water. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) as salinity parameter are often
determined using laborious and time consuming laboratory tests, but
it may be more appropriate and economical to develop a method
which uses a more simple soil salinity index. Because dissolved ions
increase salinity as well as conductivity, the two measures are
related. The aim of this research was determine of constant
coefficients for predicting of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) based on
Electrical Conductivity (EC) with Statistics of Correlation
coefficient, Root mean square error, Maximum error, Mean Bias
error, Mean absolute error, Relative error and Coefficient of residual
mass. For this purpose, two experimental areas (S1, S2) of Khuzestan
province-IRAN were selected and four treatments with three
replications by series of double rings were applied. The treatments
were included 25cm, 50cm, 75cm and 100cm water application. The
results showed the values 16.3 & 12.4 were the best constant
coefficients for predicting of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) based on
EC in Pilot S1 and S2 with correlation coefficient 0.977 & 0.997 and
191.1 & 106.1 Root mean square errors (RMSE) respectively.
Abstract: It is hard to percept the interaction process with machines when visual information is not available. In this paper, we have addressed this issue to provide interaction through visual techniques. Posture recognition is done for American Sign Language to recognize static alphabets and numbers. 3D information is exploited to obtain segmentation of hands and face using normal Gaussian distribution and depth information. Features for posture recognition are computed using statistical and geometrical properties which are translation, rotation and scale invariant. Hu-Moment as statistical features and; circularity and rectangularity as geometrical features are incorporated to build the feature vectors. These feature vectors are used to train SVM for classification that recognizes static alphabets and numbers. For the alphabets, curvature analysis is carried out to reduce the misclassifications. The experimental results show that proposed system recognizes posture symbols by achieving recognition rate of 98.65% and 98.6% for ASL alphabets and numbers respectively.
Abstract: In modern human computer interaction systems
(HCI), emotion recognition is becoming an imperative characteristic.
The quest for effective and reliable emotion recognition in HCI has
resulted in a need for better face detection, feature extraction and
classification. In this paper we present results of feature space analysis
after briefly explaining our fully automatic vision based emotion
recognition method. We demonstrate the compactness of the feature
space and show how the 2d/3d based method achieves superior features
for the purpose of emotion classification. Also it is exposed that
through feature normalization a widely person independent feature
space is created. As a consequence, the classifier architecture has
only a minor influence on the classification result. This is particularly
elucidated with the help of confusion matrices. For this purpose
advanced classification algorithms, such as Support Vector Machines
and Artificial Neural Networks are employed, as well as the simple k-
Nearest Neighbor classifier.